Mark Kozub is an Edmonton Rock Star Poet

I’m lucky to live in a city where poetry is quite popular. It might be a bit of an underground art form, when compared to music (for example), but it’s here in spades.

There is a massive poetry community, and open mics are usually very busy.

There is a big poetry festival every spring (there used to be 2, but they decided to join forces—probably a wise decision, when all was said and done).

The Raving Poets, the Stroll of Poets, the Rouge Lounge folks…there’s a lot of poetry in Edmonton.

One of my favourite Edmonton poets—one who doesn’t perform often enough—is Mark Kozub.

Mark is a writer, an artist, and a musician. Among other things, he’s the bass player in the Raving Poets band. I think that makes him a genuine rock star, even without the poetry.

As you can see from the embedded videos, Mark is skilled at combining his drawings with his writing in order to create some pretty stellar video poems.

He’s also got a great sense of humour.

Mark’s ability to weave tales that are both humourous and heartbreaking, and to blend various media forms to create something truly unique, is what makes him a rock star poet. For more about Mark, be sure to check out his website: markkozub.com.